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Join Date

Dec 2008

Location

Paris

Posts

343

That is a real solid bird. I have not heard of many long beards this year now that I think of it. We have shot a few birds so far and none have quite hit the 10" beard mark. That is just one of targets I use personally, nothing else. Getting it close to home and being able to share it, even after the fact, with you son is a huge bonus too. Congrats again.

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Join Date

Apr 2013

Location

behind a reel and a trigger

Posts

604

so i thought i'd take a few minutes to actually talk about how the hunt went down:
I had been scouting two big toms walking through my neck of the woods since moving here in August. These birds had no schedule, no pattern - nothing. I'd set up west of the roost, they go east... I set up at the choke point to a field, they were a no show....
really hard to pattern them, so I essentially got lazy.
I set up 500m from my front door up a hill inside a - now shattered and torn ground blind - looking at the hole between two fields where they always come through.
I got there at approx 0615h. Heard nothing, saw nothing. Being the short attention spanned person I am, I started taking pictures of some little birds that were feeding in front of the blind. I even went as far as to say I started trying to mimic their sounds to get them to look at me for a better pic.
all of a sudden a hen comes flying through the opening and gives me a bit of a startle. She is followed quite quickly from another hen - and both were moving quite quickly. I thought to myself "oh, he's got to be coming right behind them!"

He was not.

10 minutes later I'm back to taking pics of birds and being serenaded by the three crows circling overhead attacking a red-tailed Hawk.

Then I hear it.

About 300m to my right - in the direction of the roost, a gobble. A few minutes later, another gobble. This time, closer.
It's heavy dense woods beside where my blind was located, but I could JUST see through enough to see a tom in full strut walking towards the fence line.
I have one of those Quaker Boys box calls - not a huge fan of calling - especially in an ambush position - but i thought it couldnt hurt. I gave a couple short yelps. He perked right up and I had a gobble instantly. He was on the way.
He started dancing towards me, gobbling like he was king of the forest, and I put the call away when he was about 100m from the fence.

My heart is pounding.

He gobbles 100ft from the fence....then silence. I had been averaging a gobble every 15 seconds.... oh crap. Should I call him again? did he lose interest?
mind is racing....gun is lying across my lap as I was about to reach down for the box call....something catches my eye...

That bird did the 100ft sprint in mere seconds - looking for a female friend, and was now 20yds in front of me broadside....
I cant move - even in the blind, this bird has me without my gun at the ready.

I almost laughed. He looks forward - gobbles. Nothing. He turns to his right - looking away from me - gobbles - I raise on him...but the flap that conceals my face is a bit in the way of my sights so I actually have to lean abruptly to my left side to get a good bead on him if he turns around.

Almost in slow motion, he turns and completely faces me. I get that one - last - gobble. Right to my face. He then looks forward again.

Boom.

That old trusty 20g lets the #5s fly and that bird folded like a phone book.

All this before 0710h.

I had enough time to grab him, tag him, throw him over my shoulder and get down the hill to meet my wife and son and take the aforementioned photos you saw at the beginning of this post.

My sons phrase of the day at school was "Thunder-chicken" - he then proceeded to explain to his classmates and teachers why we shoot the Toms.
His reasoning:
"...Toms hog all the girl turkeys and wont let any of the Jakes have any to make a family...so we shoot the Toms to let the Jakes have some families..."